The Best Nonstick Pans

Hard anodized, heavy and oven-ready

Hard anodizing turns the outside of the aluminum into a hard, nonreactive shell, so it won't react with tomato sauce or corrode the way plain aluminum can. All-Clad makes the walls of the HA1 thick (about 4 mm), puts a three-layer PTFE coating inside, and bonds a stainless plate to the bottom, which is what makes it work on induction. It's rated for the oven to 500°F and comes with a glass lid that's good to 350°F.

Heat spreads evenly, with no hot ring around the burner. A reviewer who has cooked on one for years says the coating held up with only minor marks, while America's Test Kitchen saw eggs start to stick by the end of a long run of them, so I'd go easy with the heat and the scrubbing. It sears meat nicely for a nonstick pan, though.

At 3.6 pounds for the 12-inch, you'll want two hands to carry it full. The handle is the weak spot: Prudent Reviews found its edges dig into your palm when you lift the pan.

The affordable nonstick pan made for restaurants

This is a heavy-gauge aluminum pan, NSF certified for restaurant use and made in Brazil, and at about $38 for the 12-inch it's the cheapest pan here. The 12-inch gives you about 10 inches of flat bottom, so a whole batch of pancakes for the kids fits in one go.

The walls curve out gently, which makes the pan easy to cook in, and the coating is slick. The long handle has a removable silicone sleeve: with it on, the pan goes in the oven to 400°F, and Prudent Reviews puts it at 500°F with the sleeve taken off. Plain aluminum is soft, too. In America's Test Kitchen's drop test it dented badly, although it didn't warp more than the others, so don't bang it on the edge of the sink.

Expect to replace it in two to five years.

A nonstick frying pan set: the 10-inch and the 12-inch

Two hard-anodized pans, a 10-inch and a 12-inch, for about what one All-Clad costs. You get the same red heat spot as on the Experience, a titanium-reinforced coating that T-fal says lasts three times as long as its basic one, and an oven rating of 400°F. T-fal calls them dishwasher safe (hand washing is still kinder to any coating).

Use the 10-inch for an omelet for one, the 12-inch for a pound of shrimp or a stir-fry for four. A few drops of oil help: the pans release better with a little fat than completely dry.

Nonstick on stainless steel

This is All-Clad's classic three-layer pan (steel, aluminum core, steel) with PTFE on the cooking side, made in the USA with imported parts. It won America's Test Kitchen's 12-inch nonstick roundup this year, where they found it slick, tough and good on induction. The 12-inch has 9.25 inches of flat bottom, weighs 2.75 pounds and goes in the oven to 500°F.

The walls slope gently, so a spatula slides under fish without catching. The one complaint is the handle: it's curved inward along the top and the edges feel a little sharp in some hands.

Is it worth four times the T-fal? Only if you want a pan that heats and handles like good stainless.